The present invention relates to apparatus for removing cells and, more particularly,, to apparatus for physically removing cells in sterile manner from a disc stack on which cells are cultured in a mass cell culture apparatus.
Systems have been developed for the mass culture of cells such as, for example, the multi-plate system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,407,120 and the Biotech cylindrical rotating disc apparatus. A major difficulty associated with the use of such mass culture systems, however, is that of removing the cells from the discs on which they have been cultured. Prior art method of removing the cells involve the use of enzymes, such as trypsin which have the disadvantage of causing, to some extent at least, undesired chemical degradation of the cells.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide apparatus and method for physically removing cells in a sterile manner from mass cell culture apparatus. Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for physically removing cells in sterile manner from the discs of the multi-plate or multi-disc mass cell culture apparatus. These and other objects will be apparent from the following detailed description.